ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Islamic militants, in an incident similar to one that caused a conflict at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, have taken over a mosque in Pakistan's tribal area.

The BBC reported Monday about 70 pro-Taliban militants occupied the Haji Sahib Turangzai shrine in Pakistan's Northwest Province, near the border with Afghanistan, after driving out the shrine officials.

The site was renamed the Red Mosque after the complex in Islamabad that the Pakistani army took earlier this month from Islamic militants after a major assault in which dozens died.

The militants also said they were establishing a seminary similar to the one in the Islamabad mosque.

A local journalist told the BBC that heavily armed militants, wearing masks, searched all those entering the mosque in the Northwest Province.

The journalist said Omar Khalid, the leader of the militants, told him his men vowed to set up similar mosques and seminaries across the country.

Haji Sahib Turangzai, after whom the mosque was named, was a reformist in the 19th century.